Monica Schirmer Eshelman has sent in her abstract of the 1895 deaths mentioned in the St. Joseph Missouri Herald and Daily News. She’s able to work faster because there are now only two newspapers, but also because the further you go back, the fewer obituaries and death notices are available. But she still parties on! Thanks, Monica!

Got the email I’ve been waiting for — the 1966 Missouri death certificates have been scanned and are ready for indexing.

In the past, if you didn’t get on it pretty quickly, you were left out. It only took two or three days to get the job done. However, now they are also indexing the parents’ and spouses’ names, among other things, so it takes longer, but it’s well worth it. It also gives you plenty of time to help!

You can email Kelsey Berryhill, the volunteer coordinator, to add your name to the list of volunteers. Thanks for the help! 🙂

Jessica Reynolds has completed her final segment on how she created the family history binder as a gift for her father-in-law. The posts address the materials she used and how to obtain them, the how and why of her dividers, sections on photos, timelines, maps, and the documents she included — the last one being the one I was waiting for. 😀

It’s a wonderful project and she’s set forth great ideas on how to handle such things as including information on photos in an easily accessible and readable way.

Even though she says she created the blog to as an easy way to answer the flood of questions she received when she first mentioned her project in The Organized Genealogist Facebook group, I’m just guessing we might see more of her creative ideas posted on her blog. I, for one, am going to continue to follow . . . [Yes! There’s more!]

I was so excited to read this morning on Dick Eastman’s blog that Oklahoma has finally thrown a bone to home bound genealogists with roots there.

Unfortunately, the interface isn’t easy to use. Oh, the form fields are clearly labeled, etc., BUT in my last attempt, I got an error message that the search resulted in 17 results and the parameters needed to be adjusted accordingly. Um . . . Good luck if you’re looking for a “Smith” or “Jones” with a name that changes with every census enumeration.

That said, it’s a start. We who embrace this “hobby” are nothing if not determined.

Monica Schirmer Eshelman has sent in her abstract of the 1901 deaths mentioned in the St. Joseph Gazette and the St. Joseph News-Press. She has since commenced working on 1900 which should arrive soon, considering her dedication!